A Gross Failing of Humanity - Thousands of Rohingya Killed in Myanmar

The highly respected aid-group Medecins Sans Frontieres(MSF), Doctors Without Borders, estimates that some 6, 700 Rohingya people died at the hands of the Myanmar army, between August 25 and September 24, this year, a clear indication of a gross failing of humanity that allowed so many stateless people to be killed before an impotent global community.

It was toward the end of August following attacks by militants upon police bases that the Myanmar army started a violent campaign upon the Rohingya people. MSF counts that 647, 000 Rohingya people have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar since August 25. 

While Myanmar authorities have claimed that just 400 of the minority Muslim sect, whom they deemed terrorists, were killed during the operation and that they have since exonerated themselves  of any crimes against the Rohingya via a self-investigation, the stark numbers of killed Rohingya people found by MSF through surveys of refugees in camps in Bangladesh, are "the clearest indication yet of the widespread violence" perpetrated by Myanmar authorities upon the Rohingya people.

As reported by the BBC-News earlier today, MSF said its surveys found that most of the Rohingya deaths were caused by violence which also claimed the lives of 730 Rohingya children under the age-of-five.  " In the most conservative estimates", of the 6, 700 people killed in the month; 69.4 percent were shot, 8.8 percent were burned in their homes, 5 percent beaten to death and 2.6 percent were killed following sexual assaults.

More grim, of the killed children under the age-of-five, 59 percent were shot, 15 percent burned to death, 7 percent beaten to death and 2 percent died from landmine blasts.

MSF Medical Director Sidney Wong revealed what the surveys of the Rohingya found: "What we uncovered was staggering, both in terms of the numbers of people who reported a family member died as a result of violence, and the horrific ways in which they said they were killed or severely injured."

More sad, the aid-group Medical Director added: " The numbers of deaths are likely to be an underestimation as we have not yet surveyed all the refugee settlements in Bangladesh and because the surveys don't account for families who never made it out of Myanmar," the BBC-News reported.

Noting that Rohingya "are still fleeing" Myanmar, MSF described as "premature" a deal between Bangladesh and Myanmar for the return of refugees to Myanmar. The group also cautioned that there was limited access for aid groups into Rakhine state, where most Rohingya live, in Myanmar.

The brutal ethnic-cleansing killing of so many Rohingya people, including hundreds of children by the Myanmar army, explicitly represents a crime against humanity. Therefore, all measures and steps should be taken to bring Myanmar officials before the International Criminal Court(ICC) for crimes against humanity.